Someone always knows

A common attitude that I encounter when communicating with other smallholders is that British regulations are stupid, nonsensical or unnecessary so therefore “any sensible person” would ignore them because “who’s to know?”

The sort of person who comes out with this usually adds something like “we only lend legitimacy to the stupidity of bureaucrats by blindly obeying the Law”.

Now I agree some regulations are stupid, knee-jerk responses to the panic of the moment, while many more are poorly worded or ill-thought through in their consequences, but I disagree that the best action is to ignore them (except in extreme cases).

Instead, I prefer to contact the people charged with implementing agricultural and animal health and welfare regulations to learn what the intent is behind the laws and how they’re likely to be interpreted.

I’ll then do my best to meet that intent and that interpretation within our means.

It’s not always easy to do that, especially when you’re told there is no hard and fast interpretation as the officials are waiting for a few court cases to settle the dust.(Yes, I really have been told that.)

If I think there are problems with the regulations, I’ll contact my MP and MSP to alert them to the issues, I’ll put it in writing to the local media (and possibly national as well), and I’ll take it up on forums, with professional bodies and with other individuals.

Over and above that, we operate with total transparency.

I blog about our farming practices, when people visit to buy pigs they get a complete walkthrough, if people are interested in what we do they can visit (or even stay a night or two) and see everything for themselves, if government officers, officials and inspectors visit they’re welcomed and given the walkthrough, and if the SSPCA is sent out then they’re welcome too.

(But note, visitors should be pig clean for 72 hours beforehand and prepared to disinfect boots etc if they want to go through to the animal side.)

It’s not an easy path to take, especially due to the extra demands it puts on our limited time, but we understand that by and large most of the regulations were drafted to stop bad practices (although many of those bad practices were often outlawed under existing regulations that were ignored by people who couldn’t be bothered).

Why do we do it this way? Because we believe in trying to do the right thing, even if the legislative system appears increasingly angled towards making it difficult for people who are trying to do just that.

And there are advantages to our approach, too.

An Animal Health officer dropped by the croft today while I out buying a load of livestock feed.

She couldn’t come in as she wasn’t pig clean, but she did quiz the Other Half about what livestock we had and in what numbers, what we fed the pigs and whether we knew the legal position on catering waste, whether from commercial or domestic kitchens.

The OH was able to give the officer the basic information, but as she follows my verbal or written instructions when helping with feeding  she couldn’t go into detail.

When I came home, I phoned the officer to provide more information.

I explained how we feed our pigs sow rolls, rolled barley and vegetables that we grow ourselves, all in varying proportions depending on the age, sex and purpose of the pigs.

I explained how the vegetables are grown on the animal side with any fodder for the animals either being diverted to their feed bins or fed direct without coming anywhere near our kitchen.

I explained how we keep records of the feed we buy, how we mix it, and how we feed it.

I detailed how we clean and disinfect the feed bins between batches of feed, with different types of feed separated into different bins (not just poultry and pig feed, but different types of feed within those categories).

I also told the officer that I explained to every person who buys pigs from us that it is illegal and poor biosecurity to feed catering waste to pigs, and that I provide people with a printed sheet explaining this.

(I also had a mini-rant about people who treat pigs as rubbish bins and feed them with the sort of processed rubbish that’s turned the British population into a race of blubber-guts, but that’s by the by!)

I said that unfortunately some people choose to ignore that advice and even tell me what they actually feed their pigs, as compared with what they might tell a government officer they feed their pigs. (She said at this point that we were the only pig keepers who’d been upfront in describing what they fed their animals.)

I’m not going to name names (well, not unless I actually see blatant examples of bad practice), but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Animal Health officer has a look through the movement records and visits a few of the people who have bought from us to remind them of the legal and animal health implications of feeding their pigs scraps and rubbish.

The overwhelming majority who feed their animals properly will have nothing to worry about, while those who don’t will be reminded of what they need to do.

If anyone thinks I’m a bit harsh, remember that people don’t have to tell me what they feed their pigs or how they keep them. If they have guilty secrets, they should keep them to themselves.

And the answer to the original question, “who’s to know?”

Anyone and everyone who passes through or by your farm, croft or smallholding—and one of them may be even more bloody minded than me and name names. Just as our first welfare inspection was prompted by an anonymous tip-off.